NOWNS: TapRoot Farms continues to evolve, innovate (Video)

They’ve mastered growing fruits and vegetables, and now TapRoot Farms is working on growing clothing, too.

The Port Williams family farm recently started growing flax so they can process it into textiles.

“There will be clothing made from the fibres we’ve grown here on the farm and processed, sewn and weaved right here in the Valley,” says Patricia Bishop, who owns the farm with her husband, Josh Oulton.

“We want to be able to provide people not only with fruit and eggs and meat, but also with tea towels and sheets and clothing from the farm.”

It’s no wonder TapRoot Farms is a finalist in the Now! Nova Scotia Good News Awards’ growth-oriented enterprises category. Along with running TapRoot Farms and the TapRoot Fibre Lab, Bishop also co-owns HarvestHand — software designed to make CSAs more profitable.

Bishop grew up on a farm in Greenwich — her family runs Noggins Corner Farm Market — and Oulton was also immersed in agriculture as he was being raised in Hants County. Bishop and Oulton’s pastoral romance began at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College and there was no doubt what kind of business they wanted to create.

What started as a simple operation to wholesale a handful of crops back in 2004 has evolved into an extensive farm and a Community Shared Agriculture operation that provides nutritious, ethically produced foods for families across Nova Scotia.

They started transitioning to verified organic production in 2007 and aim to be fully organic by 2020 with the help of their three children, Izaak, Lily, and Frank. The other immediate goal is working through a process to implement a living wage.

Slow Food Canada named TapRoot Farms one of their Slow Food Heroes in 2014 for their efforts to promote sustainable, clean and fair food, and preserving the culinary history of their region.

They’ve had many successes, but Bishop says sometimes it feels like their biggest accomplishment has been simply surviving.

“Agriculture is a really challenging industry. When we started the organic farm, the big goal was to see if we would be able to make it five years,” says Bishop. “It’s not easy to make it work in this industry, so our biggest accomplishment has been that we’re still farming. We’ve been able to hire more people to work for us, and it’s expanded in a way that’s sustainable.”

She says running three agriculture businesses simultaneously feels “like a roller coaster ride,” and it has been exciting for TapRoot Farms to be recognized as a finalist in the Now! Nova Scotia Good News Awards.

If TapRoot Farms wins the $20,000 prize, Bishop says the money would ensure they could keep more people employed. They’d also buy the equipment they need to pull long-line flax from the ground so they don’t need to pull it by hand anymore. Small-scale pullers are difficult to find but they’ve located one in South Africa they’re hoping to buy.

“Agriculture is a challenge and sometimes it feels like people don’t understand, so when something like this happens it’s wonderful to have people know what we’re doing,” says Bishop.

“We’re really thankful for the opportunity to share about organic agriculture and the whole system of how we get our food and our clothes.”